I'd like to add another perspective here. I'm also not competitive (except against myself). I've been thinking about this thread for a day or two, and have some ideas that may (or may not!) be relevant here.
As a kid, I never made it terribly far in the National Spelling Bee competition in my school, in spite of the fact that I spelling has always been very easy for me. Looking back on it, I've realized that part of the reason for this was because I really didn't get the idea of what the thing was all about. Spelling was easy for me, and at 12, I didn't see a need to spell words like syzygy or segue. So, why bother?
In some ways, not caring too much about winning (or, let's face it, even entering) can be a handicap because others will shine more brightly or can compete their way past me according to the norms of the workplace. For example, I'd do poorly in a typical academic research environment because I'm not the kind of person who cranks out two or three papers a year, and publications are a important in tenure decisions (academics out there: please don't think I'm disparaging people who write lots of papers. The research world needs productive people. But I think we need a counterbalance to this approach).
On the other hand, there are also enormous benefits to being non-competitive. I'm quite happy to work on my own and submit occasional papers that are the culmination of a lot of work. I set my own agenda and have found a way to do what I want by operating in a microstartup. It's been six years, and I'm finally starting to publish.
Thing is, people like me don't do well in academia because working on an idea for five to ten years before you can think about writing a paper is not viewed favorably by a tenure committee. Not to mention that this approach doesn't generate a lot of preliminary data for a grant application. So people like me tend to get part-time jobs that allow us to do research when we're not at work.
What I'm trying to say is that being non-competitive can be a strength, especially if you can find a niche and you're channeled by internal drive.
Okay, that was long. I hope these maunderings have helped someone see another perspective....
Val
